Childkiller quizzed over 1978 newspaper girl mystery

A triple childkiller is to be questioned by police about the mystery disappearance of 13-year-old newspaper delivery girl Genette Tate, who vanished 26 years ago, it has emerged.

The riddle of the Devon teenager is Britain's longest missing persons inquiry.

Detectives from the Devon and Cornwall force are to travel to the north of England to interview a 58-year-old man in connection with Genette's disappearance, said a spokesman.

Robert Black, sentenced to 10 life sentences a decade ago, is being held at Wakefield prison in West Yorkshire.

Black was interviewed by Devon and Cornwall detectives in 1996 and 1998 but denied abducting Genette.

A former delivery driver for a poster firm, he was sentenced to 10 life sentences in 1994 for the abduction and murder of three young girls, and the attempted abduction of a 15-year-old girl.

Black, of Stamford Hill, north London, was convicted in 1994 of the murder during the 1980s of 11-year-old Susan Maxwell and five-year-old Caroline Hogg, both from Scotland, and 10-year-old Sarah Harper, from Morley, near Leeds.

Body never found

Genette was 13 when she went missing near her home village of Aylesbeare on the afternoon of August 19 1978 while delivering newspapers.

Her body had never been found.

A team of 20 police is still trying to solve the Genette riddle.

Devon and Cornwall Police have said the case would remain open "as long as there is something positive to inquire into".

When Genette was last seen by friends in Within Lane near her home village, she was delivering newspapers by bike.

A few minutes later, further up the lane, they came across her bicycle and newspapers lying in the road but there was no sign of Genette.

Thousands of people turned out to search the countryside for the schoolgirl, but without success.

All the original police team members investigating the mystery have now retired.

Over the years the Genette file has grown so large it is kept in a 12ft by 10ft document cage at the Devon and Cornwall Police headquarters.

The mountain of paperwork includes more than 20,000 cards in a filing system.

Police have described as a "major breakthrough" the DNA profile of Genette obtained over a year ago from an item of clothing kept by her mother.

The genetic fingerprint now gives the Devon and

Cornwall Police team the potential to see whether they can find a match on items belonging to suspects they investigate.